A Long Time Coming
by GlitterCyborgPrincess
Summary: It took a long time, but Mai finally realized why that one question was so absolutely devastating. She doesn't like easy and agreeing with him made it *suspiciously* easy. Mai preferred a challenge.


**A Long Time Coming**

 **~ It's my first Ghost Hunt fanfic, please be kind ~**

 **P.S. Crossposted on Ao3 - I just lost the password to this acct. :(**

It took Mai months of being apart from Naru and the reappearance of Gene in her visions at the Agawa nightmare house to realize that she had been tricked. No, not tricked. Perhaps fooled. _Still wrong_ , she decided. Deceived. Beguiled (to choose a word Naru might prefer thought she was sure she was using it wrong).

 _Me or Gene?_

His question was just enough to throw Mai into a pit of confusion. In the spur of the moment, she was unable to answer. Naru, of course, took this to mean that she was in love with his dead brother. And Naru was always right. So Mai agreed with him: it wasn't Naru she was in love with. It was Gene. After all, even in death, Gene was charming and kind and always smiling. He was the picture of the perfect boy, shining compared to Naru. In comparison, Naru was sharp around the edges and perpetually unpleasant. He had walls built around his heart to protect himself from anyone that might invade. Who wouldn't pick Gene over Naru?

So while Naru traveled back to England to bury his brother, Mai had the intention to do the same. Not go to England. But bury her feelings for Gene. It was deceptively easy because he no longer appeared as her spirit guide since his body was found. His soul could rest. Her so-called-love could as well. And she wouldn't have to worry about it ever again. She could move on with her life, a feat that was surprisingly easy because she never had to see Naru's face which would only inevitably remind her of Gene.

Then he came back. Mai chalked up her aversion to her boss's face as the lingering remnants of the crush she had on his dead brother. So she worked as she always did, with the conviction that Madoka taught her when he was gone: don't Naru tell her 'no.'

When they recovered from the case, the office slowed down like it always did. Naru was still picky about cases and most of them had simple solutions to begin with. She suddenly had a lot of time to think. If he knew what she was thinking he would scold her and tell her that he didn't pay her to doze off and think about her feelings. Especially now that she actually knew the truth of her employer, she actually had phone and mail privileges. Two months with Madoka taught her to organize and let her mind wander all at the same time.

That's when she realized she was deceived.

It's not that Mai didn't love Gene. She did. He might have even loved her, too. But Mai was not _in_ love with Gene. And he was not _in_ love with her. It was selfish to try and make it that easy. Especially since he was dead. What she knew about Gene: he was kind, he smiled a lot, and he helped her guide her abilities (though she hadn't been able to use her abilities since Naru left). Her heart raced whenever he was kind to her. And while that's all certainly enough to encourage affection, it's not enough to maintain it.

Gene explained to her at the Agawa house that he was able to communicate with her because they had similar wavelengths. Which meant, if she had to guess, that they probably would have been best friends if he was alive. If she ever gained the nerve to ask, Naru would probably (begrudgingly) agree with her.

Here's the thing: Mai had never been a fan of easy. If she liked easy, she would have stayed with her teacher even after she went into high school. If she liked easy, she would have opted to take an easier job...one that didn't threaten her life from time to time. She would have quit after the Ryokuryou case. After the Urado case.

Is she liked easy, she would have left SPR when Naru did. Clean break, no problem.

Yet there she was, flipping through case requests and research that Naru assigned her in hopes that one day he might not have to explain every tiny thing. She didn't mind the extra "homework," honestly. It helped her feel less useless on cases and it would give her the knowledge she needed to argue when Naru was being unnecessarily cruel. Maybe one day she would actually win a verbal spar against her moody boss.

"Mai, tea."

She sighed, pushing herself away from the desk. It was almost as if any time she started getting antsy and bored, he would call from his office for a cup of tea. Which was decidedly different than how often he would call for Tea when Taka was still in the office. Mai busied herself with the tea. When the time was ready, she brought over the cup on a saucer and pushed Naru's door open with her hip. "I made oolong this time."

Naru nodded, accepting the cup but never looking up from whatever he was working on. For all Mai knew, he was working on his university work but it seemed more likely that he himself ended up down a research rabbit hole when double-checking a fact. He took a sip without a word.

Mai huffed and curled her hands into fists. "You know, one day I'm going to convince you to thank me."

He looked up from his paperwork, his brow arched. He was, at the very least, mildly amused with her statement. "I look forward to it."

Her cheeks flushed and she turned away, escaping the office faster than she entered. "Always having to steal my moment," she muttered under her breath. As much as Naru told her that she let herself overreact and make a scene, he managed to steal her thunder time after time.

"I heard that, Mai."

"You were supposed to!" She yelled indignantly.

She settled down back at her desk. It took a full minute before she could feel her face return to its normal temperature. She smiled in spite of herself, leaning back into her office chair. Luckily she was alone in the office this morning. Lin was tucked in his office like always and Yasu wouldn't be there until later for some reason or another (Mai was never going to admit that she ignored his reasoning). Meaning, she had the luxury of Yasu not butting his nose into her so-called love life.

See, Mai preferred a challenge. She liked to work hard because it made the outcome so much more satisfying. Naru wasn't easy. Madoka was surprised that he even took her on as an assistant, flabbergasted to learn that he continued to employ her after her supposed confession of being in love with his brother. Obviously, he liked her well enough to keep her on for this long. So she must be doing something right.

It might take months. It might even take years until Naru was willing to _maybe_ take her seriously as a romantic love interest.

And Mai was willing to wait.


End file.
